Is New Orleans Really Ready for Gustav?

Editor's Note: Check here for the latest information on Gustav.

NEW ORLEANS -- Nearly 1 million Gulf Coast residents fled the path of Hurricane Gustav this weekend -- a sign that emergency preparations among residents and public officials alike, if not perfectly smooth, are improved since Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans and flattened parts of the Mississippi coast three years ago.

As major interstates filled during a bumper-to-bumper exodus Sunday, residents -- some carrying fridges and dryers in pickup trucks -- skedaddled toward Houston, Memphis and Atlanta to escape a storm that the National Hurricane Center called "a big boy."

The precautions are needed, as Gustav is likely to challenge New Orleans' up-armored but unfinished levees. The event is also a test of a complex evacuation plan put into full force Saturday afternoon. Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu worried Sunday that as many as 20,000 vulnerable New Orleanians had yet to heed the evacuation orders.

"Are the preparations better today than they were before Katrina? Absolutely, positively," says Brian Wolshon, a Louisiana State University emergency response expert. "They took their lumps with Katrina. The problem is, there's no telling if conditions will be the same (with Gustav)."

After a full-scale revamp of the region's emergency capabilities, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state and local officials know they cannot permit another embarrassing and deadly fiasco. Staging of buses, boats and generators began early last week throughout the region, and 2,000 National Guard troops were activated.

As Republicans gathered for their national convention in Minnesota, Americans watched government reaction closely, says Susan Cutter, a storm expert at the University of South Carolina. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican who was elected in part because citizens perceived him to be a more effective on-the-ground responder than other public officials, including former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, moved unprecedented resources into the area. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew at 11:30 p.m. EDT, effective Sunday night. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney decided to forgo the Republican National Convention to be on hand for emergency management.

"Politically, the Republicans can't afford a second hit," says Cutter.

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and FEMA head David Paulson toured the area late in the week as a show of federal support. Paulson said the preparations indicated "a new philosophy" for the federal government to move aggressively to protect major cities from storms.

The real shift, however, didn't come from FEMA but from the Department of Homeland Security, says Cutter. "They already know how to do this stuff," she says of FEMA. But DHS seemed woefully out of touch after Katrina's storm waters busted through the London, 17th Street, and Industrial canal levees and flooded nearly 80 percent of the Crescent City nearly three years to the day before Gustav's projected landfall.

Gustav was gaining strength Sunday, with tropical force winds extending 200 miles from the eye. But its path is not yet clear; the storm appeared to make a slight jag to the west Sunday morning, amid projections it would make landfall in southwestern Louisiana and then track into Texas as a tropical storm. The greatest threat, authorities say, is the potential for a 20-foot storm surge that could overtop the region's vast fortifications.

"This is desperate," says Jackie Clarkson, New Orleans City Council chairwoman.

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local authorities rushed to shore up levees on the vulnerable West Bank of New Orleans, which largely escaped Katrina's punch, officials made no promises that up-armored levees would hold. Of particular concern is the Harvey Canal in Jefferson Parish, widely seen as a weak point in the system. In fact, only about one-third of the city's $12 billion new levee system has been completed. With storm-surge projections of up to 20 feet and many levees at 8 feet, overtopping seems likely if the storm holds its course.